Flushed

One night last week, I decided to look for something on YouTube (I can't remember what it was, but I do know that it was not "wrestling boner"). I've done this just about every night for the past year or so, but for the first time in that time, I discovered I'd been logged out. Weird. When I tried to log back in this, this came up:

"Your account has now been permanently disabled." Has now been permanently disabled? That wording pisses me off because "now" implies that I had a past with YouTube in this matter. It pretends there'd been an ongoing battle between the site and me, and that this banishment is the result. Or maybe it pretends that I'd been warned that this was a possibility and my flagrant disobedience finally led to the inevitable punishment. Neither of these were the case.

And though I had no idea that anyone doing exactly what people do on YouTube could have me banned, I immediately knew why my account had been (it still hurts to type the next words) permanently disabled: I post "copyrighted material" and I do it often. I know that I am technically not supposed to do this: I'm reminded this every time I do it in the screens leading to the upload. But I also know that the worst thing that could happen would be that someone who owns the rights to such videos will complain and YouTube will yank them. It's a slap on the wrist you don't even feel.

Mostly, I know what YouTube is: a mecca for stuff you missed on TV and otherwise a nostalgia haven. Let's not get crazy about the vlogging component of the site: not one person I know visits YouTube primarily to hear people who can't even be bothered to coherently assemble their thoughts blather on vaugley about current events and concretely about YouTube politics. Popular vlogger boh3m3, for example, goes on and on about what it's like to be on YouTube, often raging against those who pump up their video views comments. You can't fault him for being conscious of the eyes that are on him -- he has a counter to detect every one. But he speaks as though Internet fame is a commodity, and as though his creation-feedback process is something exceptional. It isn't in either case. Look, I love Emmalina as much as the next 45-year-old perv who has to rely on lapdances for his sole source of sexual contact, but I'm not so smitten that I can't see this as a secondary use of something a website that is ultimately a sky's-the-limit archive of pop culture.

After it was clear that I wasn't getting into my account now, I emailed YouTube:

Hi,

I have no idea why my account has been "permanently disabled." I received no warning for this and I think that it's extremely unfair for the rug to be pulled out from under me like this. Could someone please explain to me why, and how, if possible I'm able to restore my videos? Some but not all of them were copyrighted and I know that you're aware that there's still plenty of copyrighted material still up on YouTube.

Please, an explanation or something would be great.

Rich

YouTube responded within 12 hours:

Hi there,

Thanks for your email.

Your account has been suspended due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use. Suspended accounts cannot be reinstated. Please view our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines here: http://www.youtube.com/t/terms and here: http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines

We are aware that there is copyrighted material on YouTube and we are working on that.

Hope this helps,

Sophia

Thanks, Sophia, for explaining nothing that I didn't already know. I might be a pirate but I'm clearly adept at sniffing out information because that's what pirates do.

This means, by the way, that every single thing that I ever uploaded to YouTube is gone. No more Winston videos (which, obviously, were my property but I guess Winston's guilty by association?). No more Liza on Larry King. No more Living Dolls. No more meth insanity. No more Mrs. World. No more Florrie.

I can't tell you how disappointed I am about this -- what started as something that I thought would be nice for readers of my blog who couldn't be bothered to wait for downloads to complete, turned into another media journal for me (I'm glad, however, that I did provide the option in many of my posts to download the mpeg or avi files that I posted on YouTube -- it prevented a lot of these posts from being totally irrelevant). My YouTube account very quickly became a survey of so many things that caught my interest over the year that I had it. And that's not even mentioning all of my saved favorites and subscriptions. All gone. Making sure the door hits my ass on the way out, YouTube won't even let me re-register under a different name, using the same email. I tried that earlier tonight, figuring that I might as well start from scratch, at least for the sake Winston (won't anyone think of the cat?!?!) and was met with this:

What, now I don't even get a "now?"

As much as this sucks for me and my borderline OCD need to document and log everything (and see how many other people are affected by it), I think it sucks for everyone's future. I don't know how many other people have encountered such unceremonious banishment at this point (I don't think it's been too many, considering the amount of unaccounted for copyrighted material still up), but people should get ready for it. The future of YouTube is no YouTube. The halcyon days are over. As with Napster and AudioGalaxy, the one-stop shop is closing. If all YouTube amounts to eventually is talking, empty heads, commercials and the most obvious of buzzworthy material (Andy Samberg, you have a bright low-def future ahead of you!), will you still use it as ravenously as you presumably do now? I won't.

I'm not trying to say that the end starts with me, but I do think my situation is another sign of the changing face of YouTube that may very well lead to ultimate irrelevance. The end probably started when Google acquired it, although maybe even before that. YouTube maybe swallowed itself. As soon as it hit its peak, the end was nigh. It needed to be popular to be able to be comprehensive, but as soon as something attracts that much attention, suits and corporations are necessarily part of the crowd that's stopping by.

What sucks about this is that, in so many cases, it's just a matter of red tape. I guess YouTube technically promotes piracy, but it's not the all-out theft that drives P2Ps. YouTube provides access to stuff that can't be bought, stuff that would go unwatched anyway. Corporations will complain about others making money off their material without licensing, but this is all money chasing money disguised as money chasing principle.

That's to say that I don't feel bad about posting what I did, and maybe that's why the punishment sucks. I can't say I'm surprised, either, but still: sucky. I suppose that until the next, free, under-the-radar thing comes along, I'll open a new YouTube account under a different email address. I'll rebuild myself, but probably avoid posting so much copyrighted material. Because I'm sad. I miss the collection that I built. But mostly I'm mad because you need an account to view YouTube's "flagged" objectionable content. As I don't have one, I can't. And I really miss those wrestling boners, damn it.

Comments

[inothernews]

I don't understand--it's not like you were posting full shows or anything, just random clips. It still doesn't seem quite violating copyright, its like taking a quote from an article.

You know, I bet Tyra was referencing you in her show about people calling her fat and she logged on with her own YouTube account and flagged vagina-arms video, as sweet "kiss my fat ass" revenge...

[inothernews]

Oh...I forgot about the full Living Dolls...'I'm glad I watched it before it disappeared. And my boyfriend and his labmates will miss the videos of Winston.

I forgot to tell you--one of his labmates put a random picture of Winston in an important lab presentation about cell migration or something. It was like "science science science, Winston, science science science."

[Mary]

boooooooooooo to youtube and their need to strictly adhere to "rules" don't worry rich if need be you can gladly use my account....

[Curtis]

I was a subscriber to the user Mordeth13 on YouTube and he, too, just recently got banned. His was because he had a video or two where he was complaining about some company that didn't do what they quite said they were going to do. The company caught wind of the video and requested that YouTube take action and they banned him as a result without warning (despite the message suggesting they had given prior warning).

He has videos on Live Video (http://www.livevideo.com/mordeth13) talking about this that you may be interested in.

Here is the first video (at about 3:30 remaining he starts to talk about it):

http://www.livevideo.com/video/Mordeth13/7EC7A83401A34A7CB7CBC6103674EFF9/banned-from-youtube-banned-part-1.aspx

[Chaka_Kahn]

Sucks. Try dailymotion in the future? They seem less on the copyright policing.

All I can hope is that the Liza video lives on in our hearts.

[whatwouldjanicedickinsondo]

that is awful.
Youtube is really biting the hand that feeds it. I have never accessed youtube for the purpose of viewing "original" content; rather, i search for clips from long-ago tv shows, or music videos for songs i haven't heard in ages, etc. If they insist on removing copyrighted material, they're going to be left with footage of 12-year-olds falling off their bikes as they attempt, and fail, stunts in their garages.

and i shall weep long and hard for the lost Liza clip. Long and hard.

[Penny Woods]

I noticed your account was suspended this weekend while I was just browsing YouTube. I was very upset when I had to delete several of your videos I marked as favorites.

I'm still amazed I haven't been banned from YouTube and YouTube started yanking off several of my videos before the Google merger.

[christiaan]

shit. that sucks.

my only advice would be to have one account for all your personal/winston clips and your bookmarks.... and then one account for any type of copyrighted material so that if they do another raid, that only those "illegal" stuff gets deleted.

i'm so glad i watched living dolls when you posted it! :) thanks for keeping me entertained!

[Penny Woods]

Nevermind. They just yanked off my YouTube account. Amazing.

[daveb]

Create a new account using a proxy to hide your IP address. Or, if you have a laptop, do your uploading in a cafe.

If you want to go the proxy route, I use and recommend Tor (http://tor.eff.org). It's pretty easy to set up and there's plenty of documentation on EFF's site. Your personal IP will be hidden and you should be able to create as many accounts as you want. You'll suffer a slight lag, but since you'll likely be using it just for uploading videos here and there, you'll likely be fine with (as I am).

Email me if you need help setting it up. Screw youtube!

[Joe]

I hear ya, babe. That sucks - but wrestling boners!?!? I have to check that shit out.

[shannon]

i'm sure you've already thought of this, but couldn't you get a hotmail or yahoo email address and re-register? good luck, rich! if you decide to boycott youtube, i'll support you!

[Billers]

Fuck Tube are a bunch of hookers, no doubt. I don't know what I am going to do without my Winston Fix. Bastards

[bethanne]

that is fucking horrible! :(

seriously rich, it's a bunch of shit really. i can understand the crackdowns that are going on with copyrighted material and everything, but to go to that extreme, it's ridiculous.

i hope everything goes well and don't let this get you down (i should know. i just went through a major surgery that would have knocked anyone - even tyra - on their asses and i'm doing just fine.) everything will work itself out real soon. <3

[deeyou]

I'm glad I went through all of your videos last week - I was looking for a Living Dolls clip - this is a sad sad day in the history of pop culture. Onto Xtube! (On a side note, how is it that Xtube gets away with being full of copyrighted material? Is it simply because it isn't as mainstream as it's PG-13 counterpart?

[Eric]

YouTube has a problem, but so do these studios and networks, etc. that insist on their content being taken down. HELLO, people are watching it--isn't that what you want? Great example, I had never even heard of this "Intervention" show until a blogger I love, Rich, posted a clip from it on YouTube and discussed it on his blog. Now I watch it all the time. Also, I just recently bought a few Mahalia Jackson songs on iTunes because I stumbled on clips of her singing on YouTube and thought she was stunning. I will never get over Dick Clark Productions for taking down the ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES from the GOLDEN GLOBES because they held the copyrights. What IDIOTS.

[kelly]

omg so sad! two days ago i was introducing my parents to youtube and went to show them the adorable winston videos and they were unavailable! i was wondering what the deal was. so sad...

: (

[amanjo]

YouTube must have been going on a tear this weekend. I noticed several music videos that I watched on Saturday were gone on Sunday. Most of the videos in question were uploaded in September. Way to piss in our cornflakes, YouTube.

[JH]

This is very upsetting, to say the least. YouTube should be licking your SHOES for the traffic your Liza video brought them. I certainly never went to that site to watch videos of miserable teenagers talking to themselves. How dull. (Although WonderRobbie has his moments.)

The Napster/ Audiogalaxy comparison so accurate. It's all over but crying!

I'm sorry you lost all your favorites, too. :(

[rose]

No more Winston? Say it isn't so!

[Mer]

Boo. I didn't get to even see the Meth wrestling since I was at work. FIGHT THE POWER!!!

[♥dex]

What a load of crap. Fucking suits have to ruin everything.

Sorry to hear this, Rich.

[k-lo]

I'm sad :( I'll miss Winston's videos

[Dany]

yeah youtube is on this crusade lately everyday that I go through my favorites 5- 10 videos are unavailable some of this stuff has been up for 6 months or more... bitches

[Foxy]

I noticed while looking up some Melrose Place videos over the weekend that YouTube had gotten very empty.

Another one bites the dust.